Once Team Bar Potential had been promised 50,000 euros from the University Fund (UFe), the way was clear to persuade the Executive Board that the project's finances are healthy and the team's vision is consistent with the Executive Board's expectations. Bar Potential aims to be a non-commercial outlet serving food and beverages, offering students attractive prices and opening times, run in part by volunteers and in part by a salaried manager.

“The UFe is giving us 50,000 euros for the inventory ‘free of charge’. This means that whatever we buy with that money remains the property of UFe," says Nic van Kooten, student of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, and the team's financial director. “We can use these funds as long as we exist and can spend them on movable goods. That means tables and chairs and the like. If we go bust, the UFe can distribute the entire inventory among the university's cultural associations instead of having to give it to the creditors.”

Team member Chantal Boom explains that the time is now right to appoint a fresh daily management team. “It won't include us. We hope to find six part-time administrators, a mixed company in terms of their affinity with the various associations on campus. It will be their responsibility to ensure that the concept - ‘a bistro run by and for students’ with an annual turnover of 900,000 euros - becomes reality. These team members must be available at least one evening a week to keep the bar open and to manage the volunteers.”